Now that I’ve started, I remember how awesome it feels after a run. The trick is not to miss a day for a while and we should be good! Ryan’s awesome and keeping me super motivated. Due to the fact that his legs are a tad longer than mine, he tends to go faster than me, but every time I’m slowing down or about to stop he pushes me a little bit further than I thought I could go.

I knew I could do it, I just had to start in my own time I guess. I’m actually excited about the 5k now. We figured out it takes about a half hour of running/fast walking to do 1.5 miles, so we should finish the 5K in about an hour. My goal is 50 minutes.

Also I am signing up for the Warrior Dash when I get paid next, so that’s also exciting.

Sidenote: I’m considering going back to school for marketing/ brand development. Thoughts?

I know this blog is dead, but I thought I’d add this here. A little too late, I know, but I feel good about it.

I’ve decided to cut back on my carb intake. After researching, most weight comes from people overeating the wrong types of carbs, so that’s my plan. I’m not getting rid of them all together, only because I know when you go back from no carbs to carbs you regain weight like mad crazy.

Not gonna lie, have not started my work out plan yet. I feel like every time I’m gung ho about starting, something happens. I had an awful cold last week that basically made it painful to get off the couch. Poo.

In happy news, we officially repicked a wedding venue and a new date. After all the family stuff happening, we realized our families could no longer afford our original plan (sorry guys! I know we were all looking forward to a mostly free beach vacation!), so we started looking at other unique venues. Well we found everything from a ranch in the mountains of North Carolina to a vineyard in Michigan.

We eventually landed on Heritage Prairie Farm RIGHT HERE IN ILLINOIS WHAT?! I am a little sad that we won’t be having a destination wedding anymore (good bye childhood dreams…. sigh…), but this place is pretty much awesome. You get the farm for the day and EVERYTHING is included (tables, chairs, linens, dishes, set up, tent, dance floor, food, BOOZE, favors…), the only things we have to bring in are DJ, photo, and a cake! You can decorate the tent however you want, but it comes with basic decorations that I think are pretty awesome, but of course I’m going to DIY that shit and make it super super awesome. The date is now early September 2013 on a Friday night.

Instead of posting pictures of food, I GUESS I’ll do a real update. If you insist.

Sleep is getting a little better. I’ve started taking melatonin, which is fantastic for making me feel rested and not waking up in the middle of the night. One night I guess Bruce started barking and Ryan couldn’t sleep and I didn’t notice it. Oops. I also am waking up feeling refreshed, which is good. I’m trying to limit myself to coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon, but at this point caffeine just makes me able to function, so it doesn’t affect my sleep schedule much. Yay addiction!

Foodwise- after I finished my sister’s birthday cake, I’ve pretty much kept on track. Ryan and I cooked a shit ton of food, so there was always something fresh and healthy to grab as I ran out the door every morning.

I also made limoncello this week, which I am super proud of! It’ll be ready for drinking today! We still have a bottle of the good stuff from Italy, so I’ll have to compare and tweak my recipe. I’m thinking next time making it with limes instead. Or maybe oranges. It’s super easy and I got these cute vintage looking bottles from TJ Maxx for $2!

On a side note: do you notice that the days you unintentionally look super cute and your hair actually cooperates with you are the days you don’t see people? Stupid snow yesterday.

1 1/2 packets nunaturals stevia or 1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar (you can use less if you’re planning to top with syrup and don’t want the actual pancakes to taste sweet)

pinch of salt (optional)

1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

5 1/2 tbsp nondairy milk of your choice

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients very well, then add wet. Make pancakes! There are only 130 calories in this entire recipe. If you want a more substantial breakfast, feel free to make a bigger serving and/or go crazy with the toppings!! And if you’re feeling really crazy:

On a rimmed baking sheet toss the diced sweet potato with the oil, 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, a pinch of coarse salt and pepper. Roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, toss the Swiss chard, jalapeno, garlic, hot sauce and pepitas into a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Pulse to combine and blend. With the motor running, pour the oil into the processor in a thin stream, until you reach your desired consistency for pesto. Taste. Yes. Yes.

Toss the black beans into a small sauce pan over medium heat. Season with the remaining cumin, chili powder and garlic salt. Heat the beans for about 5 minutes.

On a small grill or skillet over medium heat, toast the tortillas until you get browning or charred marks on each side.

Layer 2 tortillas onto each serving plate. Then spoon on some beans, followed by some sweet potatoes. Dollop with a good 2 tablespoons of Swiss chard pesto. Sprinkle on some queso fresco, the diced avocado, a good spritz of lime and a few cilantro leaves.

So tonight may have turned into my cheat day. We won’t discuss the exact reasons- let’s just say my dinner wasn’t healthy and probably wouldn’t count as dinner to 99.9% of the world.

It’s not a setback, just an oopsie.

Just to be safe, I threw away the rest of said dinner. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

Lesson of the day: I am an emotional/boredom eater. I need to find something to munch on when urge to eat hits that is healthy. Something chocolatey and salty preferably. A handful of almonds just won’t cut it when I feel the need to down half a box of Oreos. Maybe some kind of rich dark chocolate?